


Pain, Pot, and the Promise of Pancakes

by aunt_zelda



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Community: pacificrimkink, Exhaustion, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, M/M, Marijuana, Medicinal Drug Use, Multi, Pain, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Recreational Drug Use, Sasha will make pancakes and no that's not a euphemism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-24
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-24 11:23:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/939405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunt_zelda/pseuds/aunt_zelda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann is so exhausted he walks into a wall, but the wall turns out to be Aleksis, and Hermann can't even stay standing anymore he's so tired and his leg hurts so bad, so Aleksis picks him up and takes him home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this prompt at the Pacific Rim Kink meme:  
> http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/1613.html?thread=2766413#t2766413  
>  _Hermann's heading home one night through the Shatterdome, well into the zombiefied stage of pain and exhaustion where literally the only thing he can focus on is moving vaguely forward, when he walks straight into a wall. Except then the wall sprouts arms and grabs him to keep him on his feet, and it turns out the wall is actually a Russian, who is looking down at him in some concern. And Hermann would apologise for bumping into him, honestly, it's just now his momentum is broken and his leg is screaming and he'd really like to fall down and/or throw up now._  
>  And Aleksis, being literally a giant softie, essentially just scoops him up and asks him where he needs to go. Because he's big enough and strong enough and what's he going to do, leave the poor man crumpled on the floor?  
> After that, take it wherever you'd like. I just really want Aleksis carrying an upset and exhausted Hermann home.
> 
> Disclaimer: I am not advocating the use of marijuana, but in some cases it is used for pain relief and it felt appropriate in this fic. There are places for political debates; this is not the place.

Hermann is past the point of staggering, past the point of tired. Past the point of thinking, really, beyond shuffling in the basic direction of his bunk. He can’t remember the last time he slept, or ate, though he knows he must have had coffee a few hours ago because he was close to passing out and he _needed_ to crack that problem open like a walnut.

Hermann puts one foot in front of the other, and then slams into a wall.

Ok, he’s done this before. He blinks, swaying in place, and the “wall” suddenly grows arms, which warp around Hermann’s torso, which is a good thing because Hermann’s legs are starting to buckle underneath him and he was about to fall on his face. He’s that exhausted. He can’t even stay upright anymore. 

“Are you well?” Aleksis rumbles from somewhere above Hermann’s head. 

Hermann … hisses with pain because his leg is starting to send stabbing sensations up along his whole side, it was a background feeling when he was moving but now that he’s stopped … it’s agony. 

Hermann feels his body starting to tilt, and it’s only the increased hold of the Russian keeping him upright at this point. Hermann cannot stand on his own. His cane slips from his shaking fingers.

“You are not well.” Aleksis says. He gently lowers an arm underneath Hermann’s knees, scooping him up almost bridal-style, and crouches to retrieve the cane. “Where shall I take you?”

“Bed …” Hermann manages, squeezing his eyes shut. His head is pounding, the lights are too bright, and his leg hasn’t hurt this bad in months. He’s not sure if he’s dehydrated, it’s a migraine, sleep deprivation, or some unholy combination of the three, but he’s afraid he’s going to throw up.

“Yes, good.” Aleksis says, easily striding down the hallway with Hermann in his arms. “Where is it you sleep again?”

Hermann has already passed out.

~*~

Hermann wakes with an unfamiliar cold sensation on his leg. He gasps, and it’s only a hand pushing down on his chest that keeps him from lurching upright.

“No. Your head was hurting before. Rest.”

Right. Aleksis. Carried him off. Because Hermann couldn’t even stand up anymore.

“This … is not my room.” Hermann manages. Then he coughs because his mouth is dry.

“Drink.” Aleksis hands him a glass with a straw. 

Hermann sips at it and watches while Aleksis bandages an ice pack to his leg. 

“You could not tell me where you slept, you were asleep. So I brought you here.” Aleksis waves a giant hand around the room. “Sasha is at dinner.”

Hermann can see now, that he’s lying in their room. A few photographs and prints on the walls and bedside table, a bookcase with well-worn Russian and English novels on the shelves. A lamp mercifully dimmed, leaving most of the room in darkness.

“What do you take for pain? Pills? Liquids? Herbs?” Aleksis asks once Hermann has finished the water.

“Uh …” Hermann thinks, and names a generic painkiller, easily obtained from any pharmacy.

Aleksis grunts and shakes his head. “No good. You need …” He crosses the room and rummages in a cabinet, and brings back a packet of something Hermann hasn’t seen since his college days.

“I’m … fine …” Hermann says. “Where did you even –”

Aleksis grins. “Have you not heard? ‘The Russians can get you anything.’ Is good for pain. For … relaxing. For reminding stupid scientists to eat more.” Aleksis prods Hermann’s ribs meaningfully. “Then, helps you sleep. You need more sleep.”

Hermann isn’t about to argue with that. “Very well,” he sighs. “Help me?”

Aleksis rolls two, lights one and hands it to Hermann, and keeps the other for himself. “To take edge off,” he says, taking a few hits and watching as Hermann tentatively smokes his own. 

It does help. It’s not like what Hermann smoked in college, it’s … better. Certainly less foul-smelling. And he is beginning to feel much sleepier. 

“Eat, then sleep.” Aleksis chuckles to himself and heads for the kitchenette, bringing back a bowl of greenish paste and small grains. 

“Your rice is on steroids,” Hermann giggles. “Like you.”

Aleksis snorts. “No, not steroids. I am born this big. And this is orzo, not rice.”

Hermann eats it. He’s not sure what the greenish sauce is, but it’s good. Filling. Exactly what he needed.

Aleksis brings more water, and then stretches out on the bed, stubbing out his joint, and then pulling Hermann’s from his pliable fingers. “Now we sleep.” Aleksis drapes an arm over Hermann’s chest.

“T-together?” Hermann asks.

“My bed. I sleep here.” Aleksis states simply. 

“I –”

“Is your leg still hurting?”

“Um, no. It’s … good.”

“Good. Then sleep.”

Hermann decides he doesn’t have much of a choice, and lacks the inclination to protest, and sleeps.

~*~

Later, when Sasha opens the door, she merely waves a hand in the air to clear away the last remnants of smoke. Then she kicks off her boots and jacket and slips in beside her husband. 

Aleksis stirs, smiling, as she presses a kiss to his forehead.

“Husband?” she whispers, as he runs his fingers through her hair.

“Yes, wife?” he asks.

“There’s a man in our bed.”

“Yes. I put him there.”

“… why?”

“He was hurting. I fixed him.”

“That’s good.” Sasha yawns. “Will he be staying for breakfast?”

“I think so.”

“I will make pancakes.”

Aleksis sighed. “We have not had sex.”

“Oh. Then I will make cereal. After you seduce him, I will make pancakes.”

Aleksis giggles.

Sasha flicks his ear. “You have been smoking again.”

“It was for him. He was in pain.”

“There are better things for pain.”

“He needed to eat.”

Sasha curls against Aleksis. “In the morning, give him the pills. The good ones.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Aleksis nods, smiling sleepily, and slips back into his dreams.

Sasha eyes Hermann over her husband’s bulk, considering him. “We shall see,” she says at last, laying her head on Aleksis’ chest.


	2. Polyamory and Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermann wakes up and finds out that Aleksis wants to seduce him, if Vanessa is ok with that. Sasha will make pancakes if everyone agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People demanded a sequel, and I really wanted to write one. Took a while because I was finishing up my summer job, packing for my first apartment, moving into said apartment, and the apartment has yet to get internet yet. So I needed to get on campus to post this.

Hermann wakes to the smell of coffee, and the feeling of an unfamiliar bed. Bigger than his own, and with a warm presence snuggled beside him.

His first wild and terrified thought is that he got drunk last night and ended up in bed with Newton and Vanessa is going to divorce him and rightly so.

Then he remembers what really happened: he was staggering and barely upright, crashed into Aleksis, and got carried to the Kaidanovsky’s room. There was pot, and food, cuddling, and then blissful, painless sleep. 

“Good morning, doctor,” Aleksis yawns and stretches. “Is your leg hurting?”

“No,” Hermann sits up in bed and moves his leg tentatively. It aches a little, and the icepack bandaged to it has long since melted to room temperature, but nothing like the agony from last evening. 

Aleksis beams. “Good.”

A sound from the kitchenette makes Hermann look around. Sasha – clad in a tank top, boxers, and a green robe – appears to be preparing breakfast.

Aleksis spots Hermann’s guilty face and slaps him on the back. “Relax. If she did not want you here, you would not be here.”

Sasha turns and waves at Hermann, smirking as if at a private joke.

Hermann gulps. “I … I’m sorry to intrude –” he begins, but Sasha cuts him off. 

“Is no problem. My husband has, how you say, bleeding heart on sleeves.” Sasha glances at her husband and says, pointedly, “I _will_ make pancakes. Later.”

Aleksis nods. 

Hermann blinks, sure he’s missing something.

“Pills!” Aleksis bounds out of bed with surprising grace for such a big man, and goes again to the cabinet. “We will give you the good pills. No more pain zombie.”

Hermann protests halfheartedly and accepts the small bottle. Aleksis brings him water, and coffee, and Hermann takes a pill, since his leg is starting to ache a bit more insistently.

Sasha brings bowls of cereal, and plates of toast, and even small helpings of scrambled eggs. The Jaeger pilots get more protein in their diets than the rest of the people in the Shatterdome; the fact that they’re sharing it with Hermann at all makes him balk. 

“I don’t need –”

“You are guest. Eat.” Sasha says, sitting on the end of the bed and balancing her plates carefully on her knees. 

Hermann does: it’s delicious. 

“I would make pancakes. But someone has not seduced you yet.” Sasha looks pointedly at Aleksis, who stares intently at his cereal.

Hermann stares in shock, toast halfway to his mouth. 

“Last night was no good for seduction.” Aleksis says, as if that’s the only issue here. “He was in pain. He needed care, not sex.”

“I have a wife!” Hermann blurts out.

“So do I,” Aleksis glances at Sasha, smiling. She returns the smile.

“But … I …” Hermann considers this. “We’ve never discussed … this sort of thing.”

“Ah.” Aleksis nods. “Is no good unless your wife gives permission. Where is she?”

“She’s … Germany …” 

Aleksis rummages under the bed and brings out a laptop. “She has skype account?”

“Yes … I …”

Aleksis opens skype and hands the laptop to Hermann. At Hermann’s hesitation, his forehead knits. “Do you want to be seduced?” he asks, concerned. “You did not scream and push and call names when we cuddled last night. Perhaps I misread signals.”

Sasha scowls at her husband. “You gave him pot. Some people cuddle from pot, not from wanting relationship.”

Aleksis’ shoulders hunch over and he looks very small, or, rather, less huge than usual. “I am sorry, Doctor Gottlieb. I have made you uncomfortable.” He reaches to take the laptop away.

Hermann grips the sides tightly. 

Aleksis freezes in place.

“I’ll call her.” Hermann says slowly. “I just … you caught me by surprise. I’m not opposed to … well, this. I just wasn’t expecting it.” He blushes.

Aleksis beams.

Sasha finishes her toast and steals a piece of her husband’s. “We should give space.” She yanks on Aleksis’ shirt collar and they take the dishes to the kitchenette.

Hermann fires up skype and calls Vanessa, adding a message to let her know he’s using a different account than usual, to explain the unfamiliar username.

After a few tense moments of ringing, Vanessa answers. The face of a woman with bags under her eyes and long blonde hair appears on the screen. She’s wearing a baggy t-shirt with faded flowers on it, a pajama shirt Hermann remembers from their days in graduate school together. 

“Vanessa …” Hermann gulps.

Vanessa rubs at her eyes. “What’s wrong, liebling? It’s almost midnight.”

Oh, right. Hermann completely forgot about the time difference. 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t realize, the time … Vanessa I …” Hermann stutters and closes his eyes, composing himself. “Vanessa, I’ve been … approached. By someone.”

Silence reigns.

“Approached how?” she asks, voice measured.

Hermann fumbles for the right word. “… romantically. He’s married, too. His wife is here, at the Shatterdome. They’re Jaeger pilots. Together. Um.” Hermann loses his nerve and just stares at the screen, watching his wife’s face.

Vanessa bites her lip. “Goodness.”

Hermann nods. “I’m still a little shocked,” he admits.

“You look as though you’ve been asked to speak at graduation again.” Vanessa smiles warmly. “Relax, liebling. What is scaring you?”

“I … I don’t want to lose you.” Hermann says, softly because he doesn’t want the Kaidanovskies to hear him.

“Lose me? Oh, Hermann …” Vanessa reaches to the screen. “I wish I could be there and hug you. You will never lose me, Hermann. Never.”

“I … I want to believe that …” Hermann says, voice cracking slightly. He’s _not_ going to cry. He’s not going to cry over his beautiful wife insisting she won’t leave him, but he still doesn’t understand sometimes, why she loves him, why she stays, when he’s halfway across the world working in such close proximity to danger. When he’s a stuffy, work-obsessed, _broken_ man.

“I love you, Hermann. How many times do I have to say it for you to believe it?” Vanessa knows what he’s thinking because he’s voiced it often enough, she can read it on his face. “How many years do we have to be married until you trust that I stay because I love _you_ , all of you, every part?” Vanessa’s brow furrows. “These Jaeger pilots. They are married?”

“Yes.”

“I would like to speak to them, as soon as possible.”

Hermann nods, and waves Sasha and Aleksis over. They at least pretend that they weren’t able to hear the entire conversation.

“Oh,” Vanessa stares when they step into view, Aleksis sitting on the edge of the bed and crouching slightly to get his face on camera. 

“Aleksis Kaidanovsky,” Aleksis waves and smiles warmly. “I wish to seduce your husband.”

“Sasha Kaidanovsky,” Sasha nods. “I am not sure I am entirely ‘interested,’” she admits bluntly, “but my husband has feelings, and we are package deal.”

Vanessa nods, brushing her hair behind her ear. “Would this be a regular occurrence, or a one-time thing?”

“Regular.” The Kaidanovskies say in unison. 

“That is good. I do not want my husband used and discarded. He is not some … some sex toy.”

“He will not be!” Aleksis promises. “We are good to our lovers. As long as he wishes, he shall have us.”

Vanessa considers Aleksis. “Why do you want to pursue my husband? You two are Jaeger pilots, I’m sure you have plenty of fans, groupies … why my husband?”

Aleksis chooses his words carefully and thoughtfully. “He is good and smart, and works very hard to keep us all safe and predict Kaiju attacks. He does not take care of himself as well as he should. He needs someone to care for him when he forgets to eat and sleep. He needs to know human touch, not only the touch of numbers and codes.”

Hermann stares at his knees, beyond blushing, beyond mortification. 

“And you, Sasha?” Vanessa asks, leaning forward slightly. 

Sasha looks Hermann over and then turns back to Vanessa. “Your husband is very different from my husband. I have never been inside your husband’s mind. My husband is good judge of character, and your husband is very polite. He would be good partner in bed, I believe.”

“You’re right there.” Vanessa says, without a hint of a blush, while Hermann turns scarlet off to the side. 

Sasha grins and Aleksis laughs. 

“Hermann, do what you feel is right, but I see no reason to object. Well done, liebling, I’m a little jealous.” Vanessa addresses the Kaidanovskies. “It was a pleasure to meet you both. Take good care of him.”

“We promise,” Aleksis holds up his 

“ _Da_ ,” Sasha nods.

Vanessa blows a kiss to Hermann and signs off. 

Sasha pushes the laptop back under the bed while Hermann and Aleksis look at each other and grin sheepishly. 

“So …” Hermann shifts on the bed.

“So …” Aleksis agrees.

By the time Sasha emerges from underneath the bed, Hermann and Aleksis are kissing. 

“Be careful, husband,” Sasha cautions, gently pushing Aleksis’ hips to the side and tugging Hermann’s leg out from underneath him. “We promised not to break him.”

“Yes. We must be gentle, with the doctor,” Aleksis leans on his side and presses kisses along Hermann’s throat. 

Hermann clings to Aleksis and does his best to keep up. 

The bed dips later; Hermann has no objections to Sasha joining in. 

~*~

There’s breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, to be precise. 

Hermann is sore, but he doesn’t need the “good pills” this time. It’s a different kind of sore, a good sore, and one that a hot shower soothes soon enough. Granted, three people in the shower take a while to get properly clean, but Hermann doesn’t mind that at all. 

He sleeps well, nestled between Sasha and Aleksis, warm and safe. He doesn’t sleep there every night, but a few times a week is more than enough. Hermann feels much more relaxed, less anxious about human interactions. Skype chats with Vanessa are much more comfortable, much to his surprise. 

The Kaidanovskies, it seems, were the missing part of his equation. He’s perfectly balanced, the numbers don’t stutter or cease. 

And, weekly, there are pancakes in the morning.


End file.
